Indian River County school board discusses ways to trim budget

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — School board members are looking at having to cut about $5.9 million from the district's budget this year.

The board discussed at its budget workshop Tuesday cost-cutting measures such as trimming travel expenses, extending non-monetary compensation for employees whose salaries have been cut and looking at administrative positions.

The district needs to prepare for a $9.9 million reduction in state money, said Carter Morrison, assistant superintendent of finance for the district.

Offsetting that reduction will be about $3.3 million in federal Education Jobs Fund money, a federal stimulus package known as EduJobs, and about $1.6 million from the critical needs tax that voters approved in November. The critical needs tax levies property taxes an additional quarter per $1,000 of assessed property value on top of the district tax rate.

That means the district may have to cut $5.9 million from its budget.

Morrison said the district is asking schools and departments to reduce their budgets and find ways to save money.

"The board needs to take a good, hard look at what our budget is," Johnson said. That could include board members sharing rides to reduce costs, he said.

"We need to be looking at the reality of what some of this is costing us," she said.

Board member Karen Disney-Brombach questioned whether non-monetary compensation can be given to those district administrators and salaried employees whose incomes have been cut 7 percent over the past couple of years. Such compensation could include time off to go to appointments, she said.

Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava is expected to announce his budget reduction action plan at a March 29 workshop. The board plans to have one additional workshop in April before voting on the plan April 26.